The Respondent, on the face of it to further his own ends but also in his view to further the wishes of the assignors, dealt with the matter in such a way that he simply cut out the input of the assignors' solicitors.

The religious leader said politicians were trying to use religion to further their own ends, using sectarian violence as a tool.

To this end I believe that the County Board must act now before an incident like this ends tragically.

the end of the road (or line)

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The point beyond which progress or survival cannot continue:if the damages award is not lowered it could be the end of the road for the publisherthey’ve been offered compensation and they’ll accept, but only because they feel they’ve reached the end of the line

What the Executive now needs is to start developing the skills which would allow it to understand how demanding life is at the sharp end of public service delivery for teachers, doctors, police officers and others.

He was spot on when he said ‘Rough sleepers are at the sharp end of social exclusion.’

Origen

To make ends meet or make both ends meet, ‘earn enough money to live on’, was formerly also make the two ends of the year meet. It probably refers to the idea of making your annual income stretch from the beginning to the end of the year. The phrase goes back to at least 1661. If you are at the end of your tether you have no patience or energy left to cope with something. People in North America tend to say that they are at the end of their rope. The image behind both expressions is that of a grazing animal tethered on a rope so that it can move where it likes, but only within a certain range. When it reaches the end of its tether—when the rope is taut—it can go no further. At the end of the day has become one of those clichés that enrages teachers and linguistic purists. It is now continually parroted by sports players and commentators, but does not seem to have been used before the 1970s.